If you’ve thought about (or even attempted to use) Google Ads before, I am going out on a limb to say that you’ve probably muttered one of these myths under your breath. And you’re not the only one. I’ve had so many people say these to me when I start banging on about all the good things that Google Ads can do for their business.

Let me guess:

• You’ve heard about Google Ads, but one look at the tech involved and you’ve run a mile
• You have a million things on your plate and you don’t have the time to learn another platform (I hear ya!)
• You know that people would love your products, if only they could find them

So, before you make a judgement call as to whether you want to dip back into the Google Ads pond, at least have a little read.

In my experience there are four common myths that cause business owners to avoid using Google Ads.

Myth #1: Google Ads Don’t Work Anymore

Oh boy, have a I heard this one.

Google Ads DO work. Google gets over 63 000 searches per second, every single damn day. People are searching for information, content and products all the time. Businesses that utilise Google Ads are the ones that are getting in front of those people.

Organic search (SEO) is still incredibly relevant, but Google is an increasingly ‘pay to play’ platform. In most cases, there are four paid ads above the organic results in every single search, plus shopping ads – also known as product listing ads. This means that organic search results are getting pushed further and further down the page and are often not seen at all. Being at the top of the search engine results page (SERP) gives your business credibility and an increased chance that you are going to get a sale.

Personally, I have run accounts for businesses that spend $2-3million a year on Google Ads. They profitably use the platform to grow their business every year and are often making 500%+ return on investment for their advertising spend. This means that for every $1 they are putting into Google, they are getting $5 in revenue back.

Wouldn’t that be amazing?

Myth #2: I Use Facebook Ads, I Don’t Need Google Too. 

Ahhh… that ol’ one.

Yep, heard this a bunch too. In the online world their can be a bit of ‘Google vs Facebook’, when from my perspective, they should be seen to complement eachother. Certain businesses are best suited to social advertising (Facebook, Instagram etc) and others lean more to the Google side. But in most cases, Facebook and Google work well together to form a comprehensive digital marketing strategy.

A lot of my clients use both Facebook and Google ads to successfully reach their customers across a number of different touchpoints. And they also serve different purposes.

Facebook is excellent for generating demand and interrupting your potential customers while they are on Facebook.

Google is perfect for capturing that demand when people are searching for the exact products and services that you sell.

They also work together to create a cohesive remarketing strategy, where you can leverage your traffic from Facebook, and remarket to them across the 95% of sites online that are part of the Google Display Network.

If you are already advertising on Facebook and getting good results (and by results I mean sales), chances are you are going to amplify those results once you start using Google Ads.

Myth #3: Google Ads Are So Darn Confusing

Alright, this myth might actually be true… but it doesn’t have to be!
The Google Ads platform has a lot more bells and whistles than Facebook and a much steeper learning curve. The ‘AdWords stupidity tax’ was coined as most people jump on, lose a bunch of money because they have no idea what they’re doing and jump off shouting “this doesn’t work!”

I felt the same way when I started using Google Ads. There are so many tech bits and pieces, code and options that it quickly becomes overwhelming. I remember spending weeks figuring out how Google Ads syncs up to Google Tag Manager and my Shopify store and Google Merchant Centre and the tracking codes… Argh! It was all too much.

I truly believe that’s why Facebook is the preferred ad platform. There are a lot less options, less barriers to entry and you can get going pretty much straightaway.

However think of this as a good thing. A lot of people don’t use Google Ads because they can’t figure it out. That just means that a lot of your competitors aren’t on it!

Myth #4: I’ve Tried It Once And It’s Not Right For My Biz

If you have tried Google Ads before, I implore you to give it another go. A lot of the time, they don’t work because they just aren’t done the right way. As a result, you lose money, lose hope and lose patience. 

I know what it’s like to have cash flow issues, and needing to account for every single dollar because they are hard to come by.

I’m not going to B.S. you and say that Google Ads will be wildly profitable for your business in the first week. What I am promising is that when they are done right, Google Ads are a powerful marketing tool that can really grow your business.

One of my clients had previously tried Google Ads and had, frankly, been a little burned. She attempted to set them up herself, but didn’t really know what she was doing and as a result she lost money and decided to switch things off.

Next, she hired an agency, and was paying a monthly account fee for a ‘professional’ to manage her account. Nothing improved and not only had she wasted her ad spend, she had also been paying someone for nothing. I see this a lot. There are a lot of poorly trained account managers that aren’t profit and revenue focused and will tell you that your account is going well and you’re getting great results, when you haven’t actually seen any improvement in your business.

Anyway, I’m getting sidetracked. I restructured the account and within three weeks her revenue from Google Ads was up 553%.

She made $2090 from $500. This might not seem like a big deal, but for her it was. She was seeing a 400% return on ad spend, and this meant she could increase her ad budget and spend more and make more. This is within just the first three weeks. Imagine how much better things are going to get from here?